Transitioning to raw meat. Safety risk?

[PH&MonkeyPenPenFaFaTiger]

I have 4 cats and 2 of them are diabetic. Currently I am feeding canned food mix with cooked chicken meat, liver, heart. The reason I add cooked food because they are a lot cheaper. But I think the nutrition is not as complete as entirely feeding canned food.

I want the cats to have excellent nutrition, and some sources suggested that raw meat is far superior to cooked meat. Source such as Feline Nutrition. I really want to try this recipe:
Feline Nutrition's Easy Homemade Cat Food Recipe

However, I afraid of giving raw food because it is less safe than cooked food. My question is, in what way things can go wrong? I want to be 99.9% safe since cats do not really have nine lives. Question such as:

0. How to minimize the risk?

1. Risk of giving raw food to cats who eat dry food and cooked food for their whole life? How to safely transit?

2. Should I give raw meat that have bone, or boneless raw meat? One source suggested minerals of bone is essential for cat's health, and calcium supplement is inferior. Another source (Lisa A. Pierson DVM) suggest bone can be a risk of mineral overdose and block the urinary tract.

3. My cat Monkey's BG is pretty unstable in the past few days, is there any risk associate to it? @Bron and Sheba (GA) @Nan & Amber (GA)

Thanks

 

[jt and trouble (GA)]

Hi Peter!
I dont think you can go wrong with Dr Lisa's advice and instruction. I personally would love to feed my cat a raw diet but we live in the low desert. Today for example its supposed tp be 104 (and thats a relatively cool number considering it gets to 120 degrees here)
We also dont have air conditioning. We have evaporative cooler. I wont rick the raw diet in theres temperatures.

There are plenty of people here who can and do use raw diets. Hang on for more replies.


Oh and give Monkey, Pen Pen and the others, some scritches from me.

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

Things might be a lot different in Hong Kong Peter. Here we could trust the local butcher a bit more than a giant cow factory but local butchers are a thing of the past in most places. I have no experience with this but I would be concerned with keeping everything cleaner than clean.

 

[Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA)]

Hi Peter!
I dont think you can go wrong with Dr Lisa's advice and instruction. I personally would love to feed my cat a raw diet but we live in the low desert. Today for example its supposed tp be 104 (and thats a relatively cool number considering it gets to 120 degrees here)
We also dont have air conditioning. We have evaporative cooler. I wont rick the raw diet in theres temperatures.

There are plenty of people here who can and do use raw diets. Hang on for more replies.


Oh and give Monkey, Pen Pen and the others, some scritches from me.

I’m a big fan of raw food for pets, but personally I’m a vegan and can’t handle/prepare it. My only experience was with a raw food company based here in California called Smallbatch. You can buy the ready to feed sliders or the meat to mix in whatever you want. Minnie loved it, Bobo wouldn’t eat it. So the first thing is figuring out if your cats will eat it. But like with any other food transition, you also have to keep a close eye on the BG levels. My other issue is that I don’t think I was giving her the correct amounts because I was giving her the same quantity she would have eaten of canned wet food and that was a mistake. She gained weight as a result. Those are my two cents. I’m sure if you follow the guidelines of the people here who do have experience with raw food, it will be fine

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Hi Peter,
I feed my cats a completely raw diet.
I used to feed Sheba who was a diabetic cat a half raw, half cooked diet because raw chicken seemed to make her sick but I don’t have that issue with my current cats.
To minimise any risks you need to make sure that the food you are feeding is human grade meat and is very fresh.
I buy the meat and freeze it is portions that day. I take it out a day at a time and let it defrost in the fridge.
So hygiene is also very important.
Do you have access to very fresh human grade meat such as chicken pork, beef, lamb, heart, kidney, liver? And plenty of space to freeze it?

Another very important thing is to make sure you have a nutritionally balanced meal.
Unless you are feeding a frankenprey diet, which I do, you will have to use supplements to make sure it is a balanced diet.
If your cats won’t eat bone, you will have to add a calcium supplement.

I think for you, you would be best starting off with a supplement you bought and just had to add it to the meat. That way you would know it is fully balanced. I’m not sure what is available in Hong Kong but there is a place in Western Australia that has a very good supplement that you just add to the meat you choose.
I will send you the info on to. She may post to HongKong. They also have a Facebook page called Australian Raw Fed Cats. You could ask to join and I know you would get a lot of help and suggestions there. This is her website and her products.
https://rawmeow.com.au/

I also don’t grind the meat. I either leave it whole or cut it up. Harry eats chicken wings and chicken carcasses for the bone content but my other cat doesn’t so I give her egg shell powder as a calcium supplement. But for you I really think you should start off with a premade supplement. Later on you could change that but it is far easier, safer and simpler to start that way.

 

[PH&MonkeyPenPenFaFaTiger]

Hi Peter,
I feed my cats a completely raw diet.
I used to feed Sheba who was a diabetic cat a half raw, half cooked diet because raw chicken seemed to make her sick but I don’t have that issue with my current cats.
To minimise any risks you need to make sure that the food you are feeding is human grade meat and is very fresh.
I buy the meat and freeze it is portions that day. I take it out a day at a time and let it defrost in the fridge.
So hygiene is also very important.
Do you have access to very fresh human grade meat such as chicken pork, beef, lamb, heart, kidney, liver? And plenty of space to freeze it?

Another very important thing is to make sure you have a nutritionally balanced meal.
Unless you are feeding a frankenprey diet, which I do, you will have to use supplements to make sure it is a balanced diet.
If your cats won’t eat bone, you will have to add a calcium supplement.

I think for you, you would be best starting off with a supplement you bought and just had to add it to the meat. That way you would know it is fully balanced. I’m not sure what is available in Hong Kong but there is a place in Western Australia that has a very good supplement that you just add to the meat you choose.
I will send you the info on to. She may post to HongKong. They also have a Facebook page called Australian Raw Fed Cats. You could ask to join and I know you would get a lot of help and suggestions there. This is her website and her products.
https://rawmeow.com.au/

I also don’t grind the meat. I either leave it whole or cut it up. Harry eats chicken wings and chicken carcasses for the bone content but my other cat doesn’t so I give her egg shell powder as a calcium supplement. But for you I really think you should start off with a premade supplement. Later on you could change that but it is far easier, safer and simpler to start that way.

Thanks Bron. I am very sure the food is human grade and fresh. The food is from a mainstream supermarket that whole population of Hong Kong rely on it. The food safety standard should be reasonably high. Also, I have eat them for years. Yes, I have access to organs for a very cheap price from local butchers. Chicken are slaughtered in front of customers.

However, I have heard China from chicken can be harmful because chicken grow up in a poor environment and use a lot of "mysterious ingredient" . I have not much idea about that, but the uncertainty scares me.

For supplement, please see my supplement items. I did not get calcium supplement. Do you think feeding Can food may not enough since I mixed cooked meat, especially I think I will follow what you said to give cooked meat with supplements.

Btw, why not grind the meat? I was thinking grinding the meat can mix the supplement more evenly so I can give to my four cats.

I will definitely join the facebook group.

 

[PH&MonkeyPenPenFaFaTiger]

I’m a big fan of raw food for pets, but personally I’m a vegan and can’t handle/prepare it. My only experience was with a raw food company based here in California called Smallbatch. You can buy the ready to feed sliders or the meat to mix in whatever you want. Minnie loved it, Bobo wouldn’t eat it. So the first thing is figuring out if your cats will eat it. But like with any other food transition, you also have to keep a close eye on the BG levels. My other issue is that I don’t think I was giving her the correct amounts because I was giving her the same quantity she would have eaten of canned wet food and that was a mistake. She gained weight as a result. Those are my two cents. I’m sure if you follow the guidelines of the people here who do have experience with raw food, it will be fine

I guess California must have very good quality food. Yes I will try to figure out what my cat like by trials, instead of assuming that they must like raw meat with bone. This give me reason to buy calcium supplement.
I would like Monkey to gain weight since he is frail. Minnie can cut weight after gaining, so I guess she is fine

 

[PH&MonkeyPenPenFaFaTiger]

Things might be a lot different in Hong Kong Peter. Here we could trust the local butcher a bit more than a giant cow factory but local butchers are a thing of the past in most places. I have no experience with this but I would be concerned with keeping everything cleaner than clean.

In Hong Kong we used to have live chicken in every wet market, but now it is diminishing. Also it is a pity that we do not have live rabbit anymore (not even cured meat). Yes, I will try to adopt the highest standard of hygiene.

 

[PH&MonkeyPenPenFaFaTiger]

Hi Peter!
I dont think you can go wrong with Dr Lisa's advice and instruction. I personally would love to feed my cat a raw diet but we live in the low desert. Today for example its supposed tp be 104 (and thats a relatively cool number considering it gets to 120 degrees here)
We also dont have air conditioning. We have evaporative cooler. I wont rick the raw diet in theres temperatures.

There are plenty of people here who can and do use raw diets. Hang on for more replies.


Oh and give Monkey, Pen Pen and the others, some scritches from me.

Hi Jeanne. Recently Monkey have unstable BG and his poop is a bit watery. Let's give him prayers. I read a book called Holistic cat health (something like that) said the positive imagination of human can be communicated to cats.

 

[jt and trouble (GA)]

Hi Jeanne. Recently Monkey have unstable BG and his poop is a bit watery. Let's give him prayers. I read a book called Holistic cat health (something like that) said the positive imagination of human can be communicated to cats.

You and Monkey have my prayers Peter.

 

[Ale & Bobo & Minnie (GA)]

I guess California must have very good quality food. Yes I will try to figure out what my cat like by trials, instead of assuming that they must like raw meat with bone. This give me reason to buy calcium supplement.
I would like Monkey to gain weight since he is frail. Minnie can cut weight after gaining, so I guess she is fine

Ha true! Minnie is now back to her plump self

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

Peter --

I'm not familiar with the website you used for your raw "recipe." Lisa Pierson, DVM is a vet who has done a good deal of reasearch on feline nutrition and she has a recipe for a raw diet for cats. I'd suggest comparing it to the recipe you're using. You will need to be attentive to how much organ meat you're using.

I feed my guys a partially raw diet. I use a pre-mix -- this is a powder that is mixed into the raw food and it contains all of the necessary nutrients to make a complete diet. I suspect that most of the good quality pre-mixes that are available in North America are not available in Hong Kong, though. There are quite of few of us here who do give their cats a raw food diet. One concern can always be if you are using ground meat vs grinding your own. There is a greater chance for contamination if meat is ground as opposed to your buying a hunk of meat and grinding it at home. That said, I buy organic ground meat. Freezing the meat for several days is likely to destroy any bacteria that may be present.

 

[Bron and Sheba (GA)]

Peter, there is no reason why you can’t grind the meat if you want to.
Are you planning to grind the bone as well? Or use a supplement? Cats must have calcium either through eating bone or getting a supplement.

I think for you starting out, you would be best to try and get a supplement that has everything added into it so all you need to get is the fresh meat.
Whatever you decide please show us first. It is very easy to get it wrong.

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

the positive imagination of human can be communicated to cats

Cats know everything that's going on around them and they certainly know when they are loved. Only someone completely out of touch with the world would think otherwise.